About the Scheme of Work
The Speekee scheme of work has been specially designed to provide a comprehensive Spanish language learning resource that is:
- Flexible and adaptable: the lesson plans and activities can be adapted to the needs of different learners, depending on age, ability and previous experience of learning Spanish or another modern foreign language.
- Easy to use: the materials have been set out in a way that will ensure teachers can select and access the appropriate lesson plans and activities – including the resources needed to carry these out – in a user-friendly way that will save time.
- Based on the most recent DCSF guidelines (including the MFL Framework) and provides detailed lesson plans and activities to cover the QCA recommended teaching programme.
- Ideal for non-specialist – including teachers who have little or no experience of speaking Spanish or teaching MFLs.
Because this is a web-based resource, it is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it continues to be in line with changing guidance from DCSF and QCA.
We welcome feedback from teachers and if you have any ideas or suggestions for improving the service and resources, then please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org. We value your ideas.
The activities, all of which are designed to be fun and engaging for the children, are your Spanish lesson plans. You can follow them to the letter, or be flexible in your approach; if you put your own spin on them please let us know what changes you make - we are always working to improve the quality of the activities for teachers.
Language learning works well when it happens ‘little and often’. But if you are doing a set lesson (of 30 minutes, for example) - whether with the whole class or a smaller group of children - look for ways to consolidate the Spanish through the week. Some of the activities take only a few minutes and can be incorporated in a variety of ways at different times during the school week.
There are sometimes several activities for each bit of new language. You needn't do all the activities with the children - they are ‘graded’ in terms of difficulty, the easiest one always coming first.
There are some activities which occur in more than one unit, if not in every one: they are regular features within the structure of the Speekee episodes. We recommend using these as a framework and to build anticipation. However, they are not essential if other activities are meeting the children's needs.
Whether or not you plan to cover all of them, aim to follow the activities in order, as they mirror the language development.
Notes on Role-playing:
Role-playing, in which the participants are actors who are playing parts, often involves an element of improvisation – even if by accident - so if the children use some ‘unscripted’ Spanish, don’t be surprised. This is a positive sign that the children are already starting to experiment with the new language.
Compared with teenagers or adults, role-playing is usually easier with young children. However, younger children can find this challenging, or become inhibited. So consider using the more confident children in the class first, as a model for the other children to copy.
Navigating the Scheme of work
You can choose how you plan and organise the teaching and learning of Spanish in your classroom. The online version of the scheme of work provides a number of different ways to 'navigate' the two-hundred activities:
You may wish to follow the scheme of work completely. In this case, see the section on Planning for more information.
Or you may want to choose specific language to teach. If this is the case, the online dictionary will show you where specific language and related teaching and learning activities are within the Speekee resources – and you won't have to spend time searching through large volumes of paper to access this information.
If you have a particular theme that you're working on in other parts of your curriculum, then you can search the online index of themes to find relevant Spanish language learning activities.
Finally, in order to enable you to keep a record of the links to the DCSF MFL framework, and sections of this that you'll be covering with each activity, we've provided an online mapping matrix that will make this task simple.
MFL Teaching and Learning Strategies
Encourage your children to use Spanish as much as they can. 'Having a go' really helps!
Collect magazines, cardboard, socks, buttons, wool etc... as a way of preparing for the activities detailed in the activities. You'll find a list of materials needed to do each of them at the beginning of each activity.
Create a Spanish language corner in the classroom, with books, posters and other culture orientated items. If one of the children goes on holiday to Spain, ask them to send a postcard to their classmates or bring some maps, menus or small souvenirs back. This will enhance the learning experience.
Encourage the children to wear a special T-shirt (like the orange ones worn by the Spanish children in Speekee) when watching the units or speaking Spanish.
Link gestures to words, as Speekee does. This will help the children to remember new words.
Throughout the series you'll hear Speekee use these instructions quite often:
These are very common instructions in Spanish; it will help to reinforce these if you can find opportunities to include them in your lessons and encourage the children to start using them too.
There are also three repetition prompts which feature regularly in Speekee:
|¿Y tú?||And you?||/ee too/|
|Otra vez||Again||/o-trah beth/|
Use these with the children whenever you can.